Today’s Yahrtzeits & History – 8 Kislev

Rav Moshe, author of Mahadura Basra, printed at the back of Gemara (1668)

Rav Eliyahu ben Yehuda Kovo (1630-1688). The son-in-law of Rav Moshe Chaim, who was the son of Rav Chaim Shabsai and the Chief Rabbi of Salonica. After the death of his father-in-law in 1685, he was appointed to be Chief rabbi. He died at a young age due to a plague, which also took the lives of his two sons. He compiled Tana D’bei Eliyahu, a collection of 451 responsa, but most of it was lost. His grandsons managed to collect 26 of them and printed them as Sheilos Uteshuvos Aderes Eliyahu.

Rav Yitzchak Navon (1733-1786). Born in Contantinople, he was the son of Rav Yehudah Navon, author of Kiriyas Melech Rav on the Rambam’s Mishna Torah, and the grandson of Rav Ephraim Navon, author of Machaneh Ephraim. Rav Yitzchak himself wrote Din Emes on the Tur and the Beis Yosef; the sefer was published in Salonika in 1803.

Rav Moshe Shapira of Slavita, son of Rav Pinchas of Koretz (1838).

Rav Avraham Yitzchak of Tunis, author of Mishmeros Kehunah (1864).

Rav Aharon Twersky, the 3rd Rebbe of Chernobyl (1786-1871). Rabbi Aharon was the oldest of the eight sons of Rav Mordechai of Chernobyl, and the grandson of Rav Menachum Nachum, the Meor Einayim of Chernobyl, his childhood teacher. Rav Aharon succeeded his father after the latter’s petira in 1837. He also served as the nasi of the Rabi Meir Baal Haness maos of Eretz Yisrael fund in the Ukraine.

Rav Nachum Dov Schneerson of Ovritch (Ovruch)(1895). Uncle of Rav Yosef Yitzchak, son of the Rebbe Rashab. Ovruch is an historic town in the Zhytomyr province of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Ovrutsky district. {note: Rav Avraham Dov of Ovritch is author of Bas Ayim}

Rav Avraham Mordechai of Kamarna (1941). {RavYitzchak IsaakYehudah Yechiel of Kamarna (1806- 1874). His uncle was Rav Zvi of Zhiditchov. He authored many important Chassidic works such as Heichel Habracha, Derech Emunah, Otzar Mitzvosecha, Zohar Chai, and Megillas Setarim among others.

Rav Pinchas Dovid Horowitz, the Bostoner Rebbe (1876-1941). Born in Yerushalayim to Rav Shmuel Shmelke and Sheyna Elka Horowitz, he was very close to his grandfather, Rav Elazar Mendel of Lelov until the latter’s passing in 1883. He then became a dvote talmid of his uncle, Rav Dovid Tzvi Shlomo of Lelov. He alos became part of a small group of boys who studied mishnayos in depth with Rav Shneur Zalman of Lublin. After his marriage to Rivka, he lived in Tzfas with hter parents. When his father died tragically at age 36, he was forced to move to Yerushalayim to care for his mother and younger siblings. His wife, Rivka, died in 1904. Her father, eager to keep his son-in-law in the family, suggested that he marry his granddaughter, Sarah Sasha Brandwein, who was still a child. In 1909, at the age of 16, she gave birth to a son, Moshe. During World War I, he escaped to the United States as a refugee in 1915, with the help of Rav Yaakov Meir of Salonika, the Rav of Greece. In gratitude to the Jews of Boston, who helped him procure residential rights in America, he settled in Boston.

Rav Dovid Borenstein of Sochotchov, the Chasdei Dovid (1876-1942). Born to Rav Shmuel (the Shem MiShmuel), who was the son of the Avnei Nezer. His primary teacher was his grandfather. In 1906, he became the Rav of Vishogrod, Poland. He moved to Loz in the late 1920s. He was very active with Agudas Yisrael and encouraged many to settle in Eretz Yisrael. He died of heart failure in the Warsaw Ghetto. The Sochatchov heritage continued under his brother, Rav Chanoch Henoch, who had established a beis medrash in Bayit Vegan.

Rav Eliezer Geldzahler (1958-2004), born to Rav Eliyahu Yehoshua Geldzahler, founder of Mosdos Ohr Yisrael of Queens and a talmid of Rav Shraga Feivel Mendelowitz, Rav Reuven Grozovsky, and Rav Gedaliah Schorr. Rav Eliezer’s mother, Henna Freidel, was the daughter of Rav Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler. As a child, he learned in his father’s yeshiva, where he made a siyum for Gemara Bava Basra before his Bar Mitzvah. As a bachur, he learned at Yeshiva Zichron Yaakov in South Fallsburg under Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel. From there, he went to Yerushalayim to learn in the yeshiva of Rav Dovid Soleveitchik. He spent several years in the Lakewood Kollel. In 1980, he married Baila, the daughter of Rav Michel and Rebbetzin Feige Twersky of Milwaukee. He opened Yeshiva Ohr Yisrael in Brooklyn and served as its Rosh yeshiva, developing a mesivta and a yeshiva gedola. In January of 2004, the bus he was on in Israel was involved in a crash, and he was critically injured.
He never recovered from his injuries and passed away 10 months later.

Today in History – 8 Kislev

· King Yehoyakim burned Megillas Eichah, written by Baruch, the talmid of Yirmiyahu HaNavi. A taanis tzadikim was eastblished commemorating this event.
· Illegal Jewish immigrants to Haifa are deported to Mauritius, 1940.
· PLO receives observer status at the UN, 1974. The UN General Assembly also approved the right of the Palestinians to a sovereign state at the expense of Israel.
· Jonathan Pollard, who had worked for Naval Intelligence, is arrested in Washington and charged with spying for Israel, 1985. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.